Extending life span of Machli, its biggest tourist draw, through live bait 20 years ago, has backfired fatally at India’s renowned tiger reserve, with two human lives lost and one tigress, Kankati, caged
Sooner or later, all chickens come home to roost. Rajasthan’s Ranthambore Tiger Reserve, which has boosted tiger tourism in India like no other place during the last 20 years, has learnt the lesson in a particularly hard and unfortunate way.
Two recent human killings in the Park, both caused by a tiger, are being attributed to the highly controversial practice of supplying ‘live bait’ (in the form of young buffaloes) to its big cats. The practice started in 2012, with the sole aim of prolonging the life span of Machli, the most popular tiger of Ranthambore, and also the biggest revenue generator of its time for the park authorities.
Little did the Ranthambore officials know then that karma would strike hard with a vengeance 13 years later. Early this week, a young forest ranger, Devendra Choudhary, was mauled to death by a tiger near Jogi Mahal, at the ever-popular zone number 3 of Ranthambore.
‘Culprit’ tigress captured
To make matters worse for the park authorities, this was the second human killing in the vicinity in the preceding 27 days. The first one took place some 500 metres away, near the Trinetra Ganesh temple where a middle-aged woman was walking down the stairs towards the parking lot, with her seven-year-old grandson.
What unfolded that day was straight out of a horror film. The boy wanted a few selfies taken and the doting grandmother obliged. They then started walking hand in hand downwards, little realising that death was awaiting a few yards ahead, crouched unseen in the roadside bushes.
Later, as the inconsolable woman recalled, a tiger appeared out of nowhere, snatched the boy from her hands and disappeared into the bushes. He, too, like the ranger 27 days later, was killed on the spot.
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For the record, the Ranthambore authorities, on May 14 captured the ‘culprit’ tigress, allegedly responsible for both killings, and she has been identified as Kankati. But this latest twist may just be the tip of an ugly iceberg.
Live bait for Arrowhead (T-84)
Kankati is one of the three sub-adult cubs of a very popular tigress which goes by the name of Arrowhead (T-84). For many months now, the family had been the wildlife photographers’ delight, obliging them with frame-worthy poses at every bend of the forest road.
But little did people realise that this was also a cursed family of tigers. Last year, Arrowhead was diagnosed with a serious ailment — reportedly cancer — which required immediate medical intervention. Timely treatment was given (a wonderful step), and to make it easier for her, the forest authorities started giving her live bait at regular intervals (a very costly move, which they realised later).
A seven-year boy, Kartik Suman, was carried off by a tiger after visiting a temple inside Rajasthan’s Ranthambore National Park, with his grandmother and uncle. Photo: X
At the time Arrowhead started receiving free meals, her cubs were a few months old. They too started enjoying the freebies. This was a delicate moment in the cubs’ life, as around this time, an otherwise disease-free Arrowhead would have started teaching the basics of hunting and catching prey to them.
But this did not happen: possibly because after treatment, a weakened Arrowhead could not make kills as regularly as she would be doing earlier, and primarily because the three cubs, getting used to the free meals offered by the forest department, became too lazy to try bringing down prey on their own.
Kankati to get life term in zoo
Dharmendra Khandal, who has been working on tiger conservation in Ranthambore for quite some time now, was quick to point out the main reason behind Arrowhead’s daughter, Kankati, turning into a man-killer. “It’s because of this practice of offering live bait to Arrowhead. The practice started with Machli and another tiger, T-2, years ago. We all know that for a tiger, killing a natural prey requires lots of energy and skill. But a human, totally helpless in a natural environment, is very easy to bag. And now we are paying a heavy price for this mindless move,’’ he told The Federal.
Khandal draws an interesting analogy. At around the time Arrowhead became the mother of three cubs, in the same vicinity, another tigress, Ridhi, also gave birth to three cubs. But the two families chalked out vastly different futures for themselves. As expected, Ridhi’s cubs, now almost adults, have turned into expert hunters and are least bothered with live baits.
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Recalls Khandal, “I must have seen Ridhi’s cubs making successful kills at least 20-25 times. But I have witnessed Arrowhead cubs doing it only 2-3 times. They are obviously handicapped. This is not a good sign for a tiger in a forest.’’
For the uninitiated, Machli, the prima donna of Ranthambore, died in 2016 at the age of 20. Thanks to the regular live bait, she became the oldest living wild tiger in India. Fast forward to May 2025. Kankati, who allegedly killed the ranger and the boy, has been captured and will be sentenced to life imprisonment in a zoo.
But what about the remaining two cubs of Arrowhead? Will the Ranthambore authorities take preventive measures — such as relocate them to another region of the park and closely monitor their behaviour — or wait for another tragedy to happen before pressing the panic button? The ball is squarely in their court.
